In a first-of-its-kind campaign in the history of general elections, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi kicked-off a unique ‘Discussion over Tea’ (Chai Pe Charcha) on Wednesday, in which he talked about issues ranging from black money, taxation, terrorism, revenue record, tackling shortfall of energy, skill development, Indian Railways and even criticised arch rival Congress party for bad-governance.
The Chaiwala barb on Modi boomeranged on the Congress as it was converted into a major campaign point for the Gujarat Chief Minister, who actually sat at a tea-cum-snacks stall ‘Iskon Gandhia’ situated on Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar highway. Not only that, he connected with nearly 1,000 tea-stalls across 300 cities in the country using technology. Modi answered questions raised from cities like Vadodara, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi (Gurgaon, Noida), Pune, Cuttack, Nasik, lucknow, Udaipur, Ajmer, Patna and many other cities.
In Delhi, the Chai Pe Charcha programme was held at 48 locations where Modi interacted with people through live video streaming. The logistics were provided by Citizen for Accountable Governance (CAG), a non-profit organisation. For this purpose, two lED television screens were put in place at each of the tea stalls that were connected through DTH services for relaying Modi’s interaction to 300 cities.
In addition to this, people could also interact with Modi through social networking sites. However, two-way communication was only available at select centres while people at rest of the tea stalls could only hear him. Chai Pe Charcha used a combination of internet, television broadcast technology, mobile and social media platforms. For Modi’s interaction, the CAG has deployed a team of 10,000 volunteers in addition to 1,820 people overlooking the technical support. They are assisted by an 85-member core group to monitor technical arrangement of interaction.
While initiating discussion based on ‘Good Governance’ theme from Ahmedabad , Modi said he would like to reach out to at least 2 crore people through Chai Pe Charcha in the coming days. In an answer pertaining to black money stashed in foreign banks, Modi said, “We would utilise 10 per cent of black money for the benefit of fixed salaried people and honest tax-payers,” he said.
Criticising the Congress for bad-governance while answering questions on election promises, he said that the Congress promised to give free electricity to farmers in the Assembly elections in Gujarat. He asserted that bad governance was like diabetes which would bring all kinds of other diseases. Talking about clean energy, he said Gujarat was the first State to announce Solar Energy Policy, even before the Union Government. He also emphasised on skill-development to empower youth and also talked about balance development of the country citing example of difference in development between the Western Indian States and the States in the eastern part of the country.
Sources in CAG said that Modi connected simultaneously in 300 cities through DTH, satellite and social media that include 300 lok Sabha constituencies. This campaign will have at least 12 editions in coming days and Modi would remain present at different tea stalls in various States in future.